Justice News

San Francisco Man Sentenced To 15 Months For Importing And Selling Counterfeit DVDs

SAN JOSE – Christopher Breejen was sentenced yesterday to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay $117,439.50 in restitution for criminal copyright infringement, announced United States Attorney Melinda Haag and Homeland Security Investigations Acting Special Agent in Charge, Tatum King.

Breejen, 43, of San Francisco, pleaded guilty on November 18, 2014, to one count of criminal copyright infringement, in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1)(A) and 18 U.S.C. § 2319(b)(1). According to the plea agreement, Breejen admitted to importing counterfeit DVD’s and then selling them on the eBay website. Between 2011 and August 2014, he sold approximately 20,000 counterfeit DVDs nationwide. Breejen was charged on September 26, 2014.

Prior to Breejen being charged, agents from the United States Customers and Border Protection (CBP) seized 16 separate shipments of counterfeit DVDs sent to Breejen from Asia. Breejen was notified about the counterfeit goods in each of these shipments by CBP. Despite these seizures and notifications, Breejen continued to import and sell counterfeit DVDs until agents from Homeland Security Investigations executed a search warrant at his residence in San Francisco, where they seized additional counterfeit DVDs.

The investigation began with a tip from the Motion Picture Association of America.

The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Beth L. Freeman, U.S. District Court Judge. Judge Freeman also sentenced the defendant to a three year period of supervised release. The defendant will begin serving the sentence on August 8, 2015.

Hanley Chew is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Elise Etter. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations.